TIO Annual Report 2005/06

Small Business Complaints

The fall in the number of small business complaints, to 5,460 from 5,857 last year, is concerning. The TIO generally regards a business as small if it employs fewer than 20 people. However, it may exercise its discretion to investigate complaints by businesses with more than 20 employees

Compared with consumers, small businesses generally bring more complex complaints to the TIO. Only 84.8% of small business complaints were resolved at Level 1, compared with 91.1% of all complaints received by the TIO.

A complaint that is difficult to resolve may have adverse consequences on a small business at the best of times, but this could be particularly critical when the resources of the business are stretched - say, in its first few years of operation.

For example, a small business may be particularly vulnerable if:

• its sales force is without mobile phones because of a contractual dispute with a provider
• it loses its EFTPOS connection as a result of a fault
• it has its internet connection transferred to another provider without authorisation.

The TIO has embarked upon several initiatives to raise awareness among small businesses, but because of the diversity of the sector this is no easy task.

The breakdown of complaints among service types is the same as last year and is as puzzling now as it was then. Complaints about landlines continue to dominate with mobiles and internet trailing in second and third places. This is surprising as it might be expected that small business would have become increasingly dependent on technologies, such as mobile phones and internet connections, which would allow them to become more flexible.

Small business complaints mix

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